News

13.02.19

I am very happy to anounce that my project about the Waddenislands will be published by Hannibal Publishers. The book is planned for 2020/2021. The exact date is depending on two major exhibitions, which we are still working on.

A publication from Cannibal Publishers: for the love of photbooks. As publishers, Hannibal takes the utmost care with each and every publication. They consider it a challenge to publish books that deserve a place of honour in your bookshelves for their concept, design, picture clarity and for the care taken in their printing and finishing.

Cannibal Publishers was founded late in 2009 by Jan Maes, Stephan Vanfleteren and Karl Vannieuwkerke with the aim to publish one book: the ultimate tribute book about Eddy Merckx, under the name Merckxissimo. The publishing house was baptised Cannibal, after Eddy Merckx.

In 2011, Gautier Platteau joined the publishers and the Cannibal fund was further expanded and supplemented with the imprint Hannibal. Under this banner, quality, illustrated books are published on history, photography, fashion, fine arts and culture. Books by Cannibal and Hannibal Publishing such as Jacky Ickx and Sense of Place - European Landscape Photography are published and distributed worldwide.

Labels:

04.12.18

In light of the increasing violence, SNCB strengthens its security measures and launches a shock campaign. The user is then invited to share his gesture on social networks with the hashtag #StopAgressionsSNCB. In the countryside, broadcast in trains, train stations and online, you can see both train operators and station employees. "By following them closely, looking straight into the camera, SNCB wants to demand the respect of the travelers towards its employees. The broken window behind which they stand on the posters of the countryside symbolizes this form of violence", says the NMBS.

Labels:

16.10.18

The Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea are a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands. The islands are the perfect natural escape; a place where endless thoughts make way for endless horizons. Avoid the high season and there are many diverse landscapes to discover.

Islands exert a kind of mystical pull on the human soul. Ironically, there is peace of mind to be found within their physical limits and isolation. In daily life, there are often a million other things we think we could or should be doing. Island life forces us to slow down and surrender to its scale and pace, with a proven calming effect on both body and mind: “Unwind”.

06.04.18

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is coming up! Belgian's mega-brewer AB InBev is temporarily rebranding its top-selling beer ‘Jupiler’ as ‘Belgium’ in support of Belgium’s national football team: the ‘Red Devils’. 290 million Jupiler cans and bottles will carry the new brand and design. This change will last until after the World Cup in July.

The fascinating part of this campaign is that even though The Netherlands won't be represented at the World Cup in Russia, the Belgian Jupiler campaign is carried out by a Dutch advertising agency: The Communication Company,a Dutch art director: Roy Schellekens, and a Dutch photographer: me. So we as Dutchies chose to unite, stand by our Belgian neighbors and brewed up something good for a higher purpose: World Cup football.

The shoot took place at the large indoor training facility of the Red Devils. We as the creative team, were granted two hours where we had to film and photograph the entire football team. With the visuals of the players and a few supporters, we later edited a final composition that turned out to be the key visual for the World Cup 2018. Giving the fact that there wasn’t much time for posing I photographed everyone separately, in order to have enough good input for the different types of advertising outlets.

For me as the photographer, the goal was to photograph the entire Red Devils soccer team with only three minutes available per player. Within this narrow time window, I had to take both close-ups as well as wide (full body) shots. The limited time, while working on a filmset and dealing with the director's tight schedule, required patience and was quite challenging. Luckily for me, this is what I find the most fascinating part.

With all the enthusiasm, the feeling of unity and skilled players like Axel Witsel, Eden Hazard, Jan Vertonghen and Kevin De Bruyne, there's no doubt we are extremely close to winning. Yes, it says 'we'! Because as for now: #wearebelgium.

The Red Devils are drawn in Group G of the World Cup and will play England, Panama and Tunisia in the first round. Belgium's opening match will be on 18 June in Sochi.

17.03.18

Many pedigree dogs are bred in such a way that they suffer constantly - where do you find one that is healthy?
A skull which is too small which causes a constant headache, a blunt snout and therefore respiratory problems. So look for a healthy pedigree dog - but where do you find them?

10.11.17

NUCLEUS | Imagining science

From 22 October - 26 November 2017, the 24th edition of the Noorderlicht International Photography Festival will take place. During ‘NUCLEUS, imagining science’ work of 74 photographers from 26 countries can be seen at six locations in Groningen, Eelde and Assen.

Tribute to human ingenuityNUCLEUS is about science and the representation of it by independent photographers and artists. In response to social developments, more and more artists use science in their research and as a source of inspiration. Science and art form a fertile combination after all. Both disciplines work from an investigative urge, with curiosity, originality, creativity and an open mind as fundamental principles. In NUCLEUS, the photographers tell their stories about science and the representation of it in around 700 images. It is the first time a collaboration from Noorderlicht will occur with KINK in Assen and Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde.

Forensics is a silver bullet, but it's also hard work.Jeroen Hofman followed students during their training.

"They must focus on looking, listening and smelling. And presume nothing."

There she lies. On a shelf, in her underwear, with a baby on her head. Around her, mannequins just like her, mostly naked. Perhaps this image best shows how common, how trivial research into a violent death can be. "I was most intrigued by the pink Crocs on her feet," says photographer Jeroen Hofman. "People at the Police Academy no longer notice such things. Although they do cover up the child-mannequins when there are visitors. Apparently that would be too confronting." He was allowed to photograph at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) and the Police Academy in Apeldoorn and Ossendrecht. This has produced sterile, macabre and alienating scenes. Take the body on the inspection table. Look closely at the post-mortem stains. Those have been painted on. Not a mannequin, but a real person it turns out. All done to make things as realistic as possible. The man in the grey underpants had posed for the photographer just moments earlier standing upright. There's a knife in his back. "This was a real case, a robbery-homicide," says Hofman, "afterwards, the knife was taken out of… ehm… taken off of his back before getting on the inspection table." When the photographer later showed his work to the actors, some found it confronting. "They were impressed by its authenticity." He found it creepy himself: "there you are, photographing a "corpse" which a second later gets up off the inspection table. Truly zombie-like. But none of the people there joked about it. It's serious business, not a puppet show."

Bloodstain Patterns

Forensics is a silver bullet. Detection is becoming increasingly accurate thanks to the power of computers and a growing insight into the uniqueness of human DNA. But in the end it's also down to hard work and "old-fashioned" detective work. Hofman was surprised at how carefully these future detectives go about their work. How at all times they try to avoid contamination of the crime scene. Look at the photograph with the plastic stepping plates, which the detective uses to enter the room without leaving shoe prints. Dressed in the iconic white suit, surgical mask and hair net, he's taking a picture with a 3D-camera. With it, he can create an extremely realistic computer model of the crime scene which can be used again and again in answering research questions. What was the exact location of the furniture? Did the suspect have enough room to lash out with the knife? What does the bloodstain pattern look like? Hofman witnessed how these future detectives do their utmost to get as close to reality as possible. In the grounds of the Police Academy in Apeldoorn for instance, plastic skeletons covered with animal meat are buried. After three months students are given the task of finding the location of these "corpses", using prickers amongst other things. During all these operations, above all, they must focus on looking, listening and smelling," Hofman knows. "And presume nothing. They must take care not to be led astray by their imagination."

10.06.14

My new studio space in the centre of Amsterdam is finally ready! I've found an old office on the ground floor of a former elementary school which is nice and bright and with enough space to do smaller portrait assignments. If I need to work in a bigger studio for a specific project I can easily rent a larger space somewhere in town. New address is Kraijenhoffstraat 135-B, Amsterdam.

Labels:

24.09.13

Since 1972 the The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts together with the Amsterdam City Archives have commissioned photographers to document the city and its population. The concept: to create a socially significant 'portrait of the times' through the medium of artistic photography. Every year three projects are selected to receive a ten thousand Euro subsidy each. I'm very pleased to announce that this year my project AMSTERDAM PARK is amongst those selected.

Parks are of tremendous importance to the city of Amsterdam. They are the city's 'green lungs'. Not only do they provide 'breathing space' by functioning as collective backyards for the otherwise cramped-for-space 'Amsterdammers', they also cater to many of their other needs in such areas as Sports, Recreation and Nature. With people from many different cultural backgrounds (and different generations) using them for a myriad of activities, the city's parks have become colorful mosaics.

I'm fascinated with documenting man-made landscapes (and what happens within their boundaries) from high above. This method produces an intriguing juxtaposition as it creates both a sense of anonymity through distance and a sense of intimacy with the subjects who are caught completely off guard. The end result is the park and its familiar landmarks as it's never been seen before; a picture which offers endless new patterns and details to be discovered by the viewer. At the same time this bird's-eye-view method connects urban life, capturing the 'Zeitgeist' by literally putting things into perspective.

As in my previous project PLAYGROUND, in PARK I will once again be photographing from an elevated position. This time however, I will add another dimension: I'm going to zoom in by descending to ground level and will combine the landscapes with detailed (family) portraits to create a complete document of the cultural melting pot which is the AMSTERDAM PARK.

Labels:

21.09.13

I recently made documentary photographs for a story Laura Stek did for 'Vrij Nederland' about Arrahil ('going on a journey'), the first funeral company specialized in Islamic burials. Roughly ninety-five percent of deceased Muslims are repatriated to their country of origin. Associate director Mohamed Ben Abdallah: "We're busier than ever. In the first year we had about a hundred deceased, now [some four years later] we reach that number in just three months. Autumn has really come."

By 'autumn' he means the dying-out of the first generation of Dutch Muslims; the migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco who came to the Netherlands during the sixties and seventies. Virtually all of them want an Islamic funeral which differs from a Dutch funeral in a number of crucial ways. Cremation for instance is unheard of: if Ben Abdallah and his colleagues get wind of a Muslim wanting to be cremated they move heaven and earth to convince relatives to have that person buried in accordance with Islamic customs, even if it means helping to pay for it with their own money. An important reason for why the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands want to be repatriated to their country of origin after death is that 'eternal rest' in a grave -as prescribed by Islam- is virtually impossible in the Netherlands: "It's a great place to live, but not to be buried", says Ben Abdallah.